You know like when people say ‘oh yeah he rang me in the middle of the night’ and things like that, in your head, what time does that period start and finish at?
The ‘middle of the night’ starts at:
The ‘middle of the night’ ends at:
For full clarity, I would say that the ‘middle of the night’ is between 2.30-4.30am.
middle of the night can anywhere between 10pm and 4am, depending on context. after 4am and its the crack of dawn (hardly know her!)
10pm-12am is ‘night-time’, 12am-2.30am is ‘late at night’ imo. It’s a delicate subject though, I agree.
12am is midnight though 
if someone phones me at 11pm it may as well be the middle of the night 
9pm = night time… 8pm - grey area depending on season, day of the week.
When does ‘evening’ finish actually, that’s a good and important question.
I like watching The Apprentice but I wish it didn’t finish at the middle of the night
Strange that ‘late at night’ comes before the middle of the night.
Someone phones me at 11:45pm, they’re phoning late at night. Someone phones me at 3:00am, they’re phoning in the middle of the night. Weird.
All theoretical, no one phones me.
The cosmos works in unknowable ways my friend.
I’ve voted on behalf of usual societal rules (pls do not press me on what this means), but personally, unless you’re my bf then any calls after 9pm and before 10am are middle of the night and shall go unanswered.
Not that I answer calls in the day either.
I’m sorry I gave the phone example tbh, it was just meant to represent the phrasing. This is not a thread about acceptable phone cut-off times, that needs its own thread.
Understood. In which case my answers are significantly different.
11pm to 2.59am
You’ve handled this contentious issue with grace and elegance, as usual.
This is my personal policy…
Can’t really think of any reason to answer a phone call in this day and age. If you’re calling from your deathbed to dictate your last words to me, whack it in a voicenote.
6am is ‘first thing in the morning’, anything before 6am is ‘the middle of the night’
It’s 12 hours after the middle of the day
Middle of the night is 11.45pm until 4.45am, unless it’s peak of summer, when it reduces down to 12am until 4am, given that the pervasive actual sunlight at the time disqualifies it from being nighttime
It varies from day to day, and is unique to each individual position on Earth, calculated at the moment midway between the beginning of the night, and the end of the night. obviously, there are times of the year when everywhere north of roughly Strasbourg do not have a night time, and thus on those days, there is no middle of the night.
Very context dependent, eg
“They [friend/family member] rang me in the middle of the night” - 11pm-5am
“They [stranger/company] rang me in the middle of the night” - 9:30pm-5am
“I woke up needing a piss in the middle of the night” - 2am-4am
when the man of the midnight shows his face.